


Wild Goose Chase

by afterandalasia



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Era, Crack, Geese, Love Confessions, M/M, Soulmate Goose of Enforcement, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 12:37:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15024770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: It's a relief to Mal to realise that Jay and Carlos are not frolicking in the fountain of their own volition.But the fact that it's due to geese might just be worse.





	Wild Goose Chase

**Author's Note:**

> ...so I'll just quote the person who explained this nicely [on tumblr](https://rodiniaorzetalthepenquin.tumblr.com/post/175002489586/).
>
>> “Soulmate AU where one person finds a goose who leads them to the other person. The difficulty comes in not being mauled by a goose.” 

For the first worrying moment, Mal thought that Carlos and Jay were _frolicking_ in the fountain.

Then she opened the window and heard the shrieking, and everything seemed a little more at rights again.

By the time that she made it into the gardens, there was quite a crowd, and she couldn’t blame any of them. Lonnie was openly filming, and Mal caught sight of a few other more-discreetly placed cameras.

Carlos tried to dart out of the fountain, only for a _goose_ , of all damn things, to come wheeling round the edge of it. Carlos shrieked, flung himself back into Jay’s arms, and the two of them stood there looking around wildly.

“Anyone want to explain to me what’s going on?” said Mal, wandering over to stand beside Evie and Ben. Evie had one hand over her mouth, wide-eyed and looking more than a little embarrassed, while Ben stood rather sheepishly beside them.

The goose hissed, and Jay stepped back hastily, Carlos still in his arms.

“I mean, not that I’m going to complain about the entertainment,” Mal continued, waving to the scene, “but, really?”

“I didn’t even realise this still _happened_!” said Evie breathlessly. “I thought it would have stopped with…”

“I would not recommend trying to explain Auradon’s magical laws to a goose.”

 Mal was not sure that anybody other than Ben would have been able to deliver that line so earnestly. But it still didn’t exactly answer her question, so she settled for giving both of them a look of exasperation.

Jay yelped, Evie winced, and Mal looked round just in time to see both of the boys landing in the water with almighty splashes. There was a smattering of laughter, and an appreciative whoop from Aziz which would almost certainly earn him payback later.

“I suppose that’s true…” said Evie.

Ben shook his head, watching the scene with an air of helplessness. He was still in half of his tourney gear, hair pushed back and sweaty, and Carlos and Jay had probably been not much better even before they had ended up in the water. They had at least managed, separately, to get to their feet again.

With a frustrated shout, Jay tried kicking water at the goose. It dodged, raised its wings, and hissed pointedly.

Mal snapped her fingers, not with magic or even really with the threat of it, but certainly with a frown on her face. “Explanation, please.”

“It’s magic woven right into Auradon,” said Evie. She shifted her hand to her cheek, look now edging closer to pity. “If someone goes too long without expressing their feelings, then…”

Mal looked from Evie, to Jay and Carlos, to the goose. “Oh, no,” she said flatly.

“It’s not fae magic, or djinn,” said Ben. “Both Fairy Godmother and Genie and Eden have tried to get to the root of the magic, but it really can’t be unwound.”

“Is that goose really trying to get them to talk about their feelings?”

“Or otherwise express them,” said Evie. “Soul Geese aren’t really picky about the details.”

Carlos appeared to be trying to threaten the goose with his shinpad. It didn’t look like the goose was particularly concerned.

Ben winced. “We haven’t had a Soul Goose Incident in over seven years… is there anything that you can do, Mal?”

Her first response was to blink, and look at him like he had just spoken in tongues. Truth be told, that was her second response as well, and it took a few blinks and a few seconds before Mal managed to gather her thoughts, glance back over at Jay, Carlos and the goose, and give a snort of laughter.

“First?” she said. “Evil, no, Soul Magic is way above what I’ve managed to read up on. Second, _evil, no_ , this is far too entertaining to watch.”

“Ohshitohshit _there’s another one!_ ” Carlos managed to shout above the general splashing, flapping and honking.

“Two?” said Ben, frowning.

“I guess whatever magical countdown Soul Geese work on kicked in as soon as they came over from the Isle,” said Mal. She watched the boys regroup to the centre of the fountain and talk urgently to each other.

“This is why we encourage people to be upfront about their feelings in Auradon,” said Ben with a sigh, rubbing the side of his neck. When Mal glanced sideways at him, he blushed. “I mean, one reason. Not many people appreciate a sudden Goose appearance.”

“Please tell me that they don’t enforce musical numbers.”

“No, no,” said Ben hastily, going even redder.

Mal folded her arms. “Thank Lucifer.”

The two geese were circling the fountain now, occasionally darting sideways if it looked like Jay or Carlos were preparing to make a break for it. As entertaining as it was, though, Mal did not fancy watching her friends make fools of themselves for the entire afternoon, and instead set about stripping off her jacket, pressing it into Evie’s hands, and rolling up her sleeves.

“I do make your clothes waterproof, you know,” said Evie, sounding only a little reproachful.

“Waterproof, sure. Geeseproof?” Mal cocked her head, and Evie glanced over at the Geese again before pressing her lips together firmly. “Yeah, figured as much.”

She marched smartly across the ring of clear space which people had provided around the fountain. One of the Geese turned and hissed at her, but Mal hissed back, letting her eyes flash green. The Goose paused, as if confused.

Well, that made two of them.

With a sigh, Mal climbed up onto the edge of the fountain, planting her boots on the stone and her hands on her hips. Both Jay and Carlos looked up at her, and whether it was pure instinct or not she could not even say. They’d had each other’s backs for so long, now, that sometimes they felt more like extensions of each other than anything else.

“It’s an Auradon thing,” she announced, without preamble. “If you go too long without admitting your feelings, a Soul Goose comes to bully it out of you.”

The second Goose tried to peck at the back of her boot. Mal whirled on the Goose and snarled back, this time not just with a flash of her eyes but with just enough magic to make her teeth look like fangs.

Apparently a dragon beat a goose. It backed away again.

“Well, right now, I’m mostly feeling _wet_ and _annoyed_ because a goose chased me into a fountain!” said Jay.

If Mal had known that Soul Magic was still so alive in Auradon, she would have read up on it. As it was, she was not wholly sure that the geese would actually leave if _she_ were the one to tell them exactly what feelings they should be expressing.

“There’s two geese,” she said, instead. “One for each of you. It’s requited.”

It seemed to take a moment for it to sink in, then both of them looked sheepishly at the other. They probably hadn’t intended to meet each other’s eyes, to judge by the expressions on their faces, but then Carlos swallowed hard and seemed to force words past his lips.

“You too?” he said.

Jay just nodded.

There was a triumphant honk from the geese, and thank evil that was enough, because Mal did not think she could have coaxed either of _them_ turning this conversation into a song.

“Right. Then get out of this fountain and let’s wait for those Geese to g–”

She did not manage to finish her words before the explosion hit.

It was not _quite_ an explosion, not in the physical sense, but the shockwave of magic slammed into her from behind and threw her splashing down into the fountain with a loud curse. She spun to see feathers and glitter streaming through the air, and then a moment later there was a second explosion and another wave of feathers followed.

Which was about the point that the fountain fell apart.

A large chunk of stone crashed down into the water between Mal and Carlos, who hurriedly tucked up his legs. What had been a gentle sprinkling of water became a pulsing torrent, and in seconds Mal was soaked to the skin and wishing that she had never tried to help out.

She stood up, grabbed Jay by one shoulders and Carlos by the other, and with her face set in a scowl dragged them bodily out of the fountain. There was some clapping as she emerged, dripping water all over the paving stones. People had moved further back from the erratically-spurting water, which sounded like a particularly good idea when it was still strewn with glitter and feathers.

“For the record,” said Mal, dropping them and looking down at her wet, glittery clothes, “you two owe me big time.”

“It’s not like we asked the geese to chase us!” Jay protested.

She glared at him, hair dripping in her eyes.

“It is kind of on us,” said Carlos.

“You go talk this out.” Mal flicked water off her hands. “I’m going to change.”

Ben had the look on his face which meant that not only was he worried about what he was witnessing, he was worried about the associated paperwork which he was going to have to deal with. Whether that was the Geese, or just the fountain, Mal did not know.

She could also see Fairy Godmother bursting out of the doors of the school, and did not want to be around when the geese hit the fan.

At least her jacket, in Evie’s hands, had managed to stay dry.

“Could've at least left a golden egg behind.”

Lonnie was waiting, camera still up, eyes sparkling. As she opened her mouth, Mal wagged a finger at her.

“If you make even _one_ goose pun, our friendship is over.”

“You’re no fun.”

Mal flipped her one finger, and headed straight for the nearest path that would take her behind the bushes and well out of Fairy Godmother’s sight. Whether it was the same concern that had Evie following after her, she had no idea, but set about wringing out the front of her shirt instead.

“Well, I do not envy Ben having to handle _that_ little situation.”

“The fountain, or the geese?” said Mal.

Back in the day, a wave of the wand would have put the fountain back together. Now, it was probably going to require contractors.

“Either.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’m just amazed that you didn’t find out about the Geese first, really,” Evie added, a note of teasing coming into her voice. Mal flicked water droplets off her fingers in Evie’s direction. “Given your general approach to feelings.”

“Those things would be running around everywhere on the Isle.”

“Those things would get _cooked_ on the Isle.”

She had a point there, as well. Mal just shook her head, let herself feel a flutter of gratitude that the weather was good, and that Carlos and Jay had finally managed something loosely resembling communication even if it had needed a couple of geese.

“Have I got glitter in my hair?”

“And feathers.”

“Oh, for evil’s sake…”


End file.
